Bluff bodies immersed in a fluid stream are susceptible to flow-induced vibrations. Depending on the body dynamic characteristics and flow conditions, different types of flow-induced vibrations may occur. The failure of a blade in a large mixing vessel in a chemical plant raised the question of the response of a parabolic cross-section bluff body to the flow excitation. Experiments were conducted in a wind tunnel using two- dimensional “sectional” models. Models with parabolic, semi-elliptic and semi-circular cross-section were investigated. In the dynamic experiments, flow velocity was increased from 0 to 22 m\s, and the oscillating amplitude and wake response were monitored. Vortex-induced vibrations were observed with Strouhal numbers for parabolic and semi-circular cross-sections of 0.13 and 0.12, respectively. Steady lift force and fluid moment for different angles of attack were monitored in the static experiments. From these results, lift and moment coefficients were calculated. For the closed semi-circular cross-section, Reynolds number had a strong influence on the lift coefficient. With an increase in Reynolds number, the lift coefficient decreased. The largest difference was noted at an angle of attack a = 45°. In contrast, the open semi-circular model lift coefficient was independent of Reynolds number. In the experiments where the elastic axis of the model coincided with the model centre of gravity, galloping was not observed in the plunge mode. When the model elastic axis was moved to a position 90 mm behind the test model centre of gravity, galloping was observed for the semi-elliptic and parabolic models. The onset of galloping coincided with the vortex-induced resonance. Changing the model elastic axis position introduced a combination of plunge and torsional motion, and latter is believed to be responsible for the existence of galloping. The parabolic model was modified in an attempt to eliminate galloping instability. Fins were added at the separation points to widen the wake and prevent the reattachment of the flow to the afterbody. With these changes, galloping was not observed, although the oscillation amplitudes remained unacceptably high. The present investigation revealed previously unknown characteristics of semi-elliptical and parabolic cross-section bluff body behaviour in fluid flow. At the same time, it laid a foundation for the solution to the practical problem encountered when a parabolic cross-section bluff body was used as a mixing blade. / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)

No / This paper presents and compares the most important and often used methods to measure turbine blade vibrations: use of strain gauges and telemetry system which is an intrusive method or, on the other site. The Blade Tip Timing (BTT) method known as Non-Intrusive Stress Measurement (System) NSMS. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages which are described below. This paper focused on synchronous vibrations, which are more important in terms of turbine blades fatigue prediction and design optimization.

Syftet med detta examensarbete var att undersöka vad det finns för didaktiska möjligheter i att utföra ekokritiska läsningar av dystopisk skönlitteratur vid undervisning om hållbar utveckling i svenskämnet. För att undersöka detta utfördes en ekokritisk läsning av science fiction- romanen Blade Runner, originaltitel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, av Philip K Dick. Tanken enligt mig var att romanen och dess skildring av en dystopisk värld kunde vara intressant att uppmärksamma i gymnasiet samt använda som underlag för diskussioner om potentiella framtidsscenarion. Utöver det ville jag, genom min analys, visa på vilka frågor gällande hållbar utveckling som en ekokritisk läsning av romanen kan lyfta fram. Utifrån detta ville jag sedan diskutera vilken potential just denna roman och den dystopiska genren i allmänhet kan ha i svenskundervisningen. Resultatet visade att det, i en ekokritisk läsning av romanen, finns tolkningsmöjligheter som belyser alla de tre huvudområden som Skolverket beskriver finns inom hållbar utveckling. Det betyder med andra ord att det finns möjligheter att öppna upp för diskussioner om hållbar utveckling utifrån ekokritiska läsningar av romanen. / The purpose of this degree project was to investigate what didactic possibilities can be found by performing ecocritical readings of dystopic literature while teaching students about sustainable development in the subject of Swedish. To investigate this, an ecocritical reading of the science fiction-novel Blade Runner, original title Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, by Philip K Dick was performed. My thought was that the novel and its depiction of a dystopic world could be interesting to acknowledge in an upper-secondary school environment, and use as a foundation for discussions about potential scenarios of the future. In addition to this I wanted to, through my analysis, show which questions regarding sustainable development that an ecocritical reading of the novel could generate. Furthermore, I wanted to discuss what potential this certain novel and the dystopic genre in general could have for teaching in the subject of Swedish.  The results showed that there are, in an ecocritical reading of the novel, room for interpretations that highlights all of the three main areas that Skolverket describes as integral parts of sustainable development. In other words, the evidence suggests that there are possibilities to open up for discussions regarding sustainable development from ecocritical readings of the novel.

The majority of present-day horizontal axis wind turbine blade tips are simple designs based on historical trends. There is, however, some evidence that varying the design of the tip can result in significant changes in performance characteristics such as power output, noise, and structural loading. Very few studies have tested this idea on an actual rotating blade and there is much to be investigated. Thus, a project was devised to examine experimentally the effect of various tip designs on an operational rotating wind turbine rotor. A tapered, twisted blade 1.6 m in length was custom designed for use in the UW Wind Energy Research Facility using the blade element momentum (BEM) method. A coupling mechanism was designed such that the outer 10% of each blade could be exchanged to evaluate the effect of different tip designs. A set of three blades was fabricated out of fibre-reinforced plastic, while the tips were machined out of maple wood on a CNC milling machine. The blade was evaluated with a standard rectangular tip to establish baseline performance against which to compare the alternative tip configurations. The three-bladed rotor was tested at shaft speeds from 100 rpm to 240 rpm in wind speeds up to the facility maximum of 11.1 m/s. The rotor was found to have a maximum power coefficient of 0.42 at a tip speed ratio of 5.3 and a 1.45 kW rated power at a wind speed of 11 m/s. The performance was compared to predictions made using the BEM method with airfoil data generated using a modified Viterna method and the Aerodas method. While the Aerodas data was capable of predicting the power fairly accurately from 5 m/s to 10 m/s, the modified Viterna method predicted the entire curve much more accurately. Two winglet designs were also tested. The first (called Maniaci) was designed by David Maniaci of Pennsylvania State University and the other (called Gertz) was designed by the author. Both winglets were found to augment the power by roughly 5% at wind speeds between 6.5 m/s and 9.5 m/s, while performance was decreased above and below this speed range. It was calculated that the annual energy production could be increased using the Maniaci and Gertz winglets by 2.3% and 3%, respectively. Considering the preliminary nature of the study the results are encouraging and it is likely that more optimal winglet designs could be designed and evaluated using the same method. More generally, this study proved that the blades with interchangeable tips are capable of being used as an evaluation testbed for alternative wind turbine blade tip designs.

The majority of present-day horizontal axis wind turbine blade tips are simple designs based on historical trends. There is, however, some evidence that varying the design of the tip can result in significant changes in performance characteristics such as power output, noise, and structural loading. Very few studies have tested this idea on an actual rotating blade and there is much to be investigated. Thus, a project was devised to examine experimentally the effect of various tip designs on an operational rotating wind turbine rotor. A tapered, twisted blade 1.6 m in length was custom designed for use in the UW Wind Energy Research Facility using the blade element momentum (BEM) method. A coupling mechanism was designed such that the outer 10% of each blade could be exchanged to evaluate the effect of different tip designs. A set of three blades was fabricated out of fibre-reinforced plastic, while the tips were machined out of maple wood on a CNC milling machine. The blade was evaluated with a standard rectangular tip to establish baseline performance against which to compare the alternative tip configurations. The three-bladed rotor was tested at shaft speeds from 100 rpm to 240 rpm in wind speeds up to the facility maximum of 11.1 m/s. The rotor was found to have a maximum power coefficient of 0.42 at a tip speed ratio of 5.3 and a 1.45 kW rated power at a wind speed of 11 m/s. The performance was compared to predictions made using the BEM method with airfoil data generated using a modified Viterna method and the Aerodas method. While the Aerodas data was capable of predicting the power fairly accurately from 5 m/s to 10 m/s, the modified Viterna method predicted the entire curve much more accurately. Two winglet designs were also tested. The first (called Maniaci) was designed by David Maniaci of Pennsylvania State University and the other (called Gertz) was designed by the author. Both winglets were found to augment the power by roughly 5% at wind speeds between 6.5 m/s and 9.5 m/s, while performance was decreased above and below this speed range. It was calculated that the annual energy production could be increased using the Maniaci and Gertz winglets by 2.3% and 3%, respectively. Considering the preliminary nature of the study the results are encouraging and it is likely that more optimal winglet designs could be designed and evaluated using the same method. More generally, this study proved that the blades with interchangeable tips are capable of being used as an evaluation testbed for alternative wind turbine blade tip designs.

The Large Eddy Simulation approach is employed to predict the flow physics and heat transfer characteristics of a film-cooling problem that is formed from the interaction of a coolant jet with a hot mainstream flow. The film-cooling technique is used to protect turbine blades from thermal failure, allowing the gas inlet temperature to be increased beyond the failure temperature of the turbine blade material in order to enhance the efficiency of gas turbine engines. A coolant fluid is injected into the hot mainstream through several rows of injection holes placed on the surface of a gas turbine blade in order to form a protective coolant film layer on the blade surface. However, due to the complex, unsteady and three-dimensional interactions between the coolant and the hot gases, it is difficult to achieve the desired cooling performance. Understanding of this complex flow and heat transfer process will be helpful in designing more efficiently cooled rotor blades. A comprehensive numerical investigation of a rotating film-cooling performance under different conditions is conducted in this thesis, including film-cooling on a flat surface and film-cooling on a rotating gas turbine blade. The flow-governing equations are discretised based on the finite-volumes method and then solved iteratively using the well-known SIMPLE and PISO algorithms. An in-house FORTRAN code has been developed to investigate the flat plate film-cooling configuration, while the gas turbine blade geometry has been simulated using the STAR-CCM+ CFD commercial code. The first goal of the present thesis is to investigate the physics of the flow and heat transfer, which occurs during film-cooling from a standard film hole configuration. Film-cooling performance is analysed by looking at the distribution of flow and thermal fields downstream of the film holes. The predicted mean velocity profiles and spanwise-averaged film-cooling effectiveness are compared with experimental data in order to validate the reliability of the LES technique. Comparison of adiabatic film-cooling effectiveness with experiments shows excellent agreement for the local and spanwise-averaged film-cooling effectiveness, confirming the correct prediction of the film-cooling behaviour. The film coverage and film-cooling effectiveness distributions are presented along with discussions of the influence of blowing ratio and rotation number. Overall, it was found that both rotation number and blowing ratio play significant roles in determining the film-cooling effectiveness distributions. The second goal is to investigate the impact of innovative anti-vortex holes on the film-cooling performance. The anti-vortex hole design counteracts the detrimental kidney vorticity associated with the main hole, allowing coolant to remain attached to the blade surface. Thus, the new design significantly improves the film-cooling performance compared to the standard hole arrangement, particularly at high blowing ratios. The anti-vortex hole technique is unique in that it requires only readily machinable round holes, unlike shaped film-cooling holes and other advanced concepts. The effects of blowing ratio and the positions of the anti-vortex side holes on the physics of the hot mainstream-coolant interaction in a film-cooled turbine blade are also investigated. The results also indicate that the side holes of the anti-vortex design promote the interaction between the vortical structures; therefore, the film coverage contours reveal an improvement in the lateral spreading of the coolant jet.

L'augmentation de la vitesse de croisière des hélicoptères à architecture conventionnelle (rotor principal et rotor anticouple) atteint aujourd'hui une asymptote. Le concept X3, associant 2 hélices et une aile pour alléger la charge du rotor principal, propose une solution viable économiquement, qui s'appuie sur l'utilisation de technologies éprouvées telles que le rotor Spheriflex® du Dauphin. Les essais en vol menés sur le démonstrateur X3 ont montré un bon comportement en performances et en qualités de vol de ce type de rotor, mais un niveau de charges très importants dans les commandes de vol. Pour limiter la masse à vide, la solution de surdimensionner toutes les pièces mécaniques n'est pas envisageable. Ce travail de thèse propose d'étudier les opportunités de réduction des efforts de commandes.Afin de pouvoir réduire ces efforts, il a été nécessaire de comprendre leur origine et de proposer une modélisation qui permette de les prédire. Des mesures expérimentales réalisées sur le démonstrateur X3 ont permis d'identifier les excitations aérodynamiques et le comportement dynamique des pales en torsion. Les phénomènes responsables de l'augmentation des efforts de commande ont été identifiés, ce qui a permis de corriger le modèle de calcul des efforts de commande HOST actuellement utilisé par Airbus Helicopters.A partir du logiciel HOST corrigé et de la compréhension des phénomènes physiques, des solutions technologiques pour réduire les efforts de commandes ont été étudiées. Deux familles de solutions sont alors considérées : l'optimisation du système de commandes de vol et la réduction des efforts dans les bielles de pas. L'optimisation du système de commandes de vol permet d'obtenir une réduction significative des efforts de commandes grâce à un algorithme d'optimisation de l'architecture de placement des servocommandes. L'étude de la réduction des efforts dans les bielles de pas montre que le choix de l'équilibre appareil conduit à des opportunités de réduction des efforts de commandes, alors que la modification du design de pale n'apporte pas de réduction notable et engendre une diminution des performances en stationnaire. / Nowadays, the increase of cruise speed for conventional helicopters (main rotor and anti-torque rear rotor) reaches an asymptote. The X3 concept proposed by Airbus Helicopters is a hybrid helicopter combining 2 propellers at the tip of small wings in order to unload the main rotor. This solution is economically viable because it reuses well-proven technologies such as the Spheriflex rotor, already used on the Dolphin family for many years. X3 flight tests have shown a good behavior of the rotor concerning performances as well as handling qualities, but control loads in the rotor system were significantly higher in cruise conditions than for conventional helicopters. In order to save the payload, over-sizing of the mechanical parts in order to withstand these loads can't be an appropriate solution. The work presented in this thesis deals with the problematic of control loads reduction.In order to reduce the control loads, the first step is to highlight the roots of these loads and to get a predictive tool over the whole flight domain. Experimental measurements from X3 flight tests give the aerodynamic loads on the blade sections, leading to understand the blades torsional dynamic behavior in several flight test cases (cruise, turns and high speed flight). Phenomena responsible for the increase of control loads are then identified, and the rotor computation tool HOST used at Airbus Helicopters is corrected to predict accurately control loads over the conventional as well as the high speed helicopter flight domain.The corrected rotor computation tool HOST, associated with the physical comprehension of the blade torsional dynamics, is used to quantify the possible solutions proposed for control loads reduction. Two main ways are studied: the optimization of the control system architecture and the reduction of pitch link loads. The optimization of control system architecture shows a dramatic reduction of control loads in the servo actuators and in the non-rotating scissors, thanks to an optimization algorithm developed during this thesis. The reduction of pitch link loads study shows that the optimization of the helicopter equilibrium leads to drastic reduction, whereas the modification of blade design does not show any significant reduction even at high speed.

Nowadays, the climate change issue is becoming more and more actual in our society. Increase of the average temperature on Earth in a couple of degrees could have catastrophic consequences. One of the possible solutions seems to be renewable energy sources as photovoltaics, biomass of water and wind energy. This thesis deals with the aerodynamics problems of wind energy source. Wind turbines transform kinetic energy of wind to mechanical power. The efficiency is physically limited to 59,26 %, but in reality, it is getting around 45 %. This is caused by three biggest losses inducted in wind turbines as wake losses, losses due to finite number of blades and drag losses. Based on analytical relationships and including these three losses the aerodynamics blade design is conducted. Later, the numerical simulations show higher values of drag and lower values of lift force on airfoil compared to analytical calculation. In fact, percentage deviations are acceptable and to conclude, the numerical analysis was able to relatively accurately simulate force action of free stream velocity on the blade.

This paper presents the results of stator clocking investigations at a design point and an operating point near the stability limit in a low-speed research compressor (LSRC). The unsteady flow field of the LSRC at several clocking configurations was investigated using a three-dimensional unsteady, viscous solver. The unsteady pressure on the rotor blades at midspan (MS) was measured using time-resolving piezoresistive miniature pressure transducers. The effect of clocking on the unsteady pressure fluctuation at MS on the rotor blades is discussed for different operating points. Based on the unsteady profile pressures, the blade pressure forces were calculated. The peak-to-peak amplitudes of the unsteady blade pressure forces are presented and analysed for different clocking positions at both the design point and the operating point near the stability limit of the compressor.

A fully instrumented on-water sprint canoe system was designed, built, and tested. The system consists of: one 6-axis load cell in the paddle shaft at the blade, one inertial measuring unit (IMU) on the paddle, one IMU on the boat, and one GPS unit on the canoe boat. These sensors communicated wirelessly to a laptop where the data was processed and displayed in real-time. The sensors were rigorously tested and well-measured in their satisfactory accuracy. The system can provide a full decomposition of the blade water force into propulsive (forward/aft), side, and vertical forces. Previous systems for canoe have been extremely simple and rudimentary. There has been more effort in the rowing and kayak systems but they still failed to capture a full force profile. On-water tests with national-level athletes examined a wide variety of sprint canoe strokes at different paces, power inputs, rates, and stroke lengths. The measurement system could clearly see the differences in force profiles between the stroke sets. A number of efficiency measures were developed using the available data. Instantaneous and integral in-stroke force ratios were developed based on the blade's propulsive force to total force proportion. Derived stroke averaged efficiencies also provided more information. These produced measurements of energy/impulse input to the boat's propulsion output. Differences in such efficiencies could be clearly seen in the various collected stroke sets. This system will be highly useful to high performance athletes and coaches for modifying athlete technique. It has potential for improving equipment design and matching athletes to optimal blade styles. More academically, it can assist biomechanical assessments of sprint canoe and numerical flow studies around blades. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc) / A measurement system for a sprint canoe paddle was created that can evaluate an athlete's stroke performance during race-like conditions. This system was tested using national-level athletes in a true on-water setting. By measuring the force and orientation of the athlete's strokes, the system was able to clearly distinguish the performance of various stroke techniques. Analysis of the force profiles and the derivation of stroke efficiencies provided additional performance indicators. This is the first system to achieve this amount of measurement detail of any rowing or paddling sport. This fully instrumented paddle system is ready to be used as a coaching tool to improve athlete performance. It can also be used as an academic tool for paddle blade study.